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1. (a) All songs must be ORIGINAL, NEW MATERIAL, released on or after January 1st, 2017. Exceptions will be made in the following circumstances:

(i) A song released as a single no more than 6 months before the cut-off date (i.e. July 1st, 2016) may ONLY be chosen if that song was subsequently released on an album for the first time during the official period of eligibility. For example, a song which was released as a single on July 1st 2016 may be chosen if that song was later included in an album released on January 1st 2017 or thereafter.

(ii) A song which is a copy of an original song may ONLY be chosen if both artists of the original song and the copy version are from the same nation AND if the original song was also released within the period of eligibility (on or after January 1st, 2017).

1. (b) All songs must be ORIGINAL to the nation for which they are competing. In other words, if a song is a copy or cover of an original song by an artist from another nation, then it is ONLY permitted to participate for the nation of the artist who produced the original version. If the artist of the cover version is from the same nation as the original artist, then the cover version must fulfill rule 1(a) in order to be eligible to participate.

1. (c) Songs that competed at Eurovision shall be excluded from competing at TISC. However, songs which competed in a national final but were not put forward to represent their nation at Eurovision may be selected to compete at TISC.

SECTION 2 - ARTIST CHOICE AND ELIGIBILITY:

2. (a) Artists chosen to represent a nation must be born in or be of the same nationality as the nation for which they are participating OR they must have more or equal association with that nation.

2. (b) In the case of bands, at least 50% of the band must be born in or be of the same nationality as the nation for which they are participating OR they should have more or equal association with that nation.

2. (c) For the purposes of the Totallympics International Song Contest, the same concept of nationality as that used by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) will be adopted. So, for example, artists from Scotland must represent Great Britain, artists from Faroe Islands must represent Denmark, etc.

SECTION 3 - NATIONAL JURY VOTING:

3. (a) National juries may consist of a single jury member OR a multi-member jury made up of two or more users from that nation.

3. (b) National juries must send their votes in SECRET (via private message) to the host organising member(s) of the song contest as requested.

3. (c) Each jury member in a multi-member jury shall send their individual preferences in SECRET (via private message) to the host organising member(s). The votes from each of the members of the multi-member jury will be combined to form a single set of votes which will represent the overall voting preference of that national jury. In this way, the votes from each of the participating national juries, whether single or multi-member juries, will hold equal value or weight.

3. (d) National juries will use the following voting format:

(i) Jury members will award points to their 12 favourite songs in ascending manner from points 1 through 12 (inclusive) with the first preference receiving a maximum score of 12 points, second preference receiving 11 points, third preference receiving 10 points, and so forth until the song of 12th preference which will receive a single point.

- 1st preference -> 12 points

- 2nd preference -> 11 points

- 3rd preference -> 10 points

- 4th preference -> 9 points

- 5th preference -> 8 points

- 6th preference -> 7 points

- 7th preference -> 6 points

- 8th preference -> 5 points

- 9th preference -> 4 points

- 10th preference -> 3 points

- 11th preference -> 2 points

- 12th preference -> 1 point

(ii) In single member juries, these scores will subsequently represent the National Jury Vote of that nation. However, in multi-member juries, the votes of all the jury members from that nation will be combined to form a single set of points. The song which has received the most number of points from that national jury will be deemed to be the overall first preference choice of that jury and will receive the maximum score of 12 points; the song which has received the second highest number of points from that national jury will be deemed to be the overall second preference choice of that jury and will receive a score of 11 points, and so forth until the song which has received the 12th highest number of points which will receive a single point from that national jury.

3. (d) National juries must submit their votes by the official voting deadline as designated by the host organiser(s). National juries who fail to submit their votes within the required time frame will be disqualified from the contest.

3. (e) Any Nation which fails to participate in the voting process will be automatically disqualified from the contest.

3. (f) A random draw will take place in advance of the Grand Final to determine the order in which the National Juries will reveal their votes. This draw must be shown to be transparent and available to competing members should they wish to follow the result.

The result of this draw must always be adhered to in order to preserve the random nature in which the voting will progress during the Grand Final. A National Jury may only request a "swap" in their designated voting position if, after the random draw, they have been assigned a voting slot outside of "reasonable hours". For the purpose of this contest, reasonable hours will be determined as anytime between 08:30-23:00 local time. During the "swap" process, the host organiser will first look to make swaps between National Juries who are eligible for swaps after the random draw.

SECTION 4 - NATIONAL JURY TIE-BREAK PROCEDURES:

4. (a) In the event of a tie in the combined votes of multi-member juries, the following set of rules outlines how the tie-break will be resolved:

(i) The song which has received points from the greatest number of jury members will be deemed the winner of the tie. For example, take the following scenario.... Songs A, B, and C each received a combined score of 10 points after the results of each national jury member were combined and calculated. Song A received a single score of 10 points from one jury member, Song B received scores of 7 points and 3 points from two separate jury members and Song C received scores of 5 points, 3 points and 2 points from 3 separate jury members. All three songs received a total of 10 points, however, Song C is deemed to be the winner of the tie because a greater number of jury members voted for that song (3 members in this case).

(ii) If the songs remain deadlocked after 4 (a) (i), the song which received the highest value score from an individual jury member will be deemed the winner of the tie. For example, take the following scenario.... Song A and Song B each received a combined score of 14 points after the results of each national jury member were combined and calculated. Song A received scores of 8+6 points while Song B received scores of 7+7 points. Song A will be deemed the winner of that tie since that song received a score of higher value (8 points) from one of the national jury members.

(iii) If the songs remain deadlocked after 4 (a) (i) and (ii), jury members from that national jury who did not award any votes to any of the songs involved in the tie-break will be asked to break the tie. This tie-break rule can only ever be used to break ties in juries of 3 members or more and ONLY if there is a jury member who did not vote for any of the songs involved in the tie-break.

(iv) After the procedures 4 (a) (i), (ii) and (iii) have been carried out, all outstanding ties within the votes of a national jury shall be resolved by carrying out a single random draw. The nature of this random draw shall be as follows:

The names of each national jury member will be entered into a draw. Each name will be drawn. The first jury member drawn will be awarded the right to break the unresolved tie of highest value. The second jury member drawn will be awarded the right to break the unresolved tie of the second highest value. For example, take the following scenario.... there are two members of National Jury X. After the votes of User A and User B are combined and calculated the following situation arises:

COUNTRY (Total points) -> Combined value

Country A (24 points) -> 12 points

Country B (21 points) -> 11 or 10 points

Country C (21 points) -> 11 or 10 points

Country D (18 points) -> 9 points

Country E (16 points) -> 8 points

Country F (13 points) -> 7 or 6 points

Country G (13 points) -> 7 or 6 points

Country H (10 points) -> 5 points

Country I (7 points) -> 4 or 3 points

County J (7 points) -> 4 or 3 points

Country K (4 points) -> 2 points

Country L (1 point) -> 1 or 0 points

County M (1 point) -> 1 or 0 points

Those highlighted in red text are those ties which could not be resolved by 4 (a) (i), (ii) or (iii). As a result of the random draw, User A was drawn first, meaning that user will be given the right to break the unresolved tie of the highest value (the tie between Country B and C for 11 or 10 points). User B was drawn second meaning that user will be given the right to break the unresolved tie of the second highest value (the tie between Country F and G for 7 or 6 points). The order will then be reversed so that User B will be given the right to break the unresolved tie of the third highest value (the tie between Country I and J for 4 or 3 points). User A will finally be given to break the unresolved tie of the fourth highest value (the tie between Country L and M for 1 or 0 points).

This procedure to break the unresolved ties will be used for national juries of any number with the first user drawn being given the right to break the unresolved tie of the highest value, the second user drawn being given the right to break the unresolved tie of the second highest value, third user the third highest tie, etc. reversing the order if need be when the order has completed one cycle.

However, it should be noted that unresolved tie-breaks which require random draws will occur mostly in two-member juries since national juries with 3 or more members will likely resolve all ties through 4 (a) (i), (ii) or (iii).

SECTION 5 - OVERALL SCOREBOARD TIE-BREAK PROCEDURES:

5. (a) In the event of a tie in the overall scoreboard between two or more nations, the following set of rules outlines how the tie-break will be resolved:

(i) The nation which has received points from the greatest number of National Juries will be deemed the winner of the tie.

(ii) If there is still a tie after 5 (a) (i), the nation which has received the greatest number of 12 points will be deemed the winner of the tie.

(iii) If there is still a tie after 5 (a) (i), (ii), the nation which has received the greatest number of 11 points will be deemed the winner of the tie. If the tie remains deadlocked, the process will continue by counting the number of 10 points each nation received, 9 points, 8 points, and so on until the tie-break can be resolved.

5. (b) If there is still a tie in the overall scoreboard between two or more nations after 5 (a) (i), (ii) and (iii) have been implemented, those nations shall be deemed to have tied for position in the overall scoreboard.

SECTION 6 - ELIGIBILITY, CONDUCT AND RESPONSIBILITY OF PARTICIPANTS:

6. (a) Any first time participant must have been registered on the forum at least 2 months before they take part in the contest. The date used to calculate the 2 months rule will be 2 months prior to the National Selection deadline. A first time participant may be allowed special dispensation to participate in TISC, even if they do not fulfill the 2-month rule criteria. However, in such circumstances, that user must have shown a high level of activity in the forum in terms of posts and presence.

These rules are not designed to exclude, only to ensure TISC retains a distinct character, built upon a unique community atmosphere created by users of the forum.

6. (b) Participating users shall be respectful of the song choice of all nations once they fulfill all of the necessary eligibility requirements.

6. (c) Participating users must not reveal or give any indication as to their preferences or voting choices at any stage before the official announcement of the votes during the Grand Final.

6. (d) Participating users must not discuss private voting procedures with other members so as to ensure fairness is always in play and to ensure any suspense during the Grand Final is kept intact.

6. (e) Participating users must be respectful when posting and discussing with other members on the Totallympics International Song Contest Thread.

6. (f) If foul play is detected with respect to 6 (a), (b), (c) or (d) at any stage before, during or after the contest, the TISC organising committee reserves the right to place the participation or result of that nation under review.

SECTION 7 - HOSTING DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

7. (a) The host organisation must allow a minimum of 3 weeks from the opening date for the national selection and the deadline to submit an entry. This is to give users enough time to see the thread, consider song and artist choices and submit their entries.

7. (b) The host organisation must allow a minimum of 2 weeks for National Juries to submit their votes during the National Jury voting phase. This is to allow jury members enough time to consider each song carefully before casting their votes.

7. (c) The host organiser(s) must submit their votes in advance of receiving votes from other National Juries by private message. The votes of the host(s) should be sent by private message to a neutral party after the national selection window has passed and before the national jury voting phase begins.

7. (d) The host organiser(s) must abide by the same rules that govern the participation of users in the Totallympics International Song Contest as outlined in Section 6.

SECTION 8 - FUTURE HOSTING RIGHTS:

8. (a) Upon completion of the relevant song contest, the winning nation will automatically be awarded the rights to host the subsequent Totallympics International Song Contest 1 year later.

8. (b) If the winning nation wishes to decline the hosting duties, a discussion will be raised in the relevant TISC thread to discuss hosting options and allowing users to put forward their bid to become the next hosts.

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I know the focus of most people here on the forum it's on the Olympics right now (rightly so), but I thought we could open this thread to start the process of registration and then, after the Games, the national selections